


A Footstep Away From Infinity

by Northern_Star



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Dimension Travel, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-07
Updated: 2011-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-27 15:03:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Star/pseuds/Northern_Star
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That other Earth would have its Superman again, and Kal-El would once more have Bruce, and then he wouldn't be alone anymore. He wouldn't be alone and miserable, unwanted and heartbroken anymore. Everything would be right again, for everyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Footstep Away From Infinity

**Author's Note:**

> Set in post- _Tower of Babel_ continuity
> 
> Written for [WFGE Prompt #7](http://community.livejournal.com/infinite_earths/9062.html): _Once upon the time, on one of those earths out there, one Superman lost his Batman, and came to our Bruce to seek comfort...set in toonverse or comicverse, maybe right after Tower of Babel or Infinite Crisis, when our Batman and Superman weren't getting along very well--but it's up to writer's choice._
> 
> A/N: Apologies for posting several days after the deadline. I agonized over this story for a very long time once I realized that the only way to make my idea really work was, well...see the warnings for details... This isn't a happy fic, although there _is_ a happy ending. In fact, if you look carefully, you'll see that everyone gets some form of a happy ending -- I promise. I realize though that this is probably not what the prompter had in mind when they asked for it, and I'm sorry for turning an obvious opportunity for h/c into, well...this instead.

~*~*~

With tired eyes, Superman went over the calculations one last time. It should work, he told himself, nodding. It had to work. It was his only option, the only one that might actually work. He got up from the wooden stool, then stretched, stifling a yawn, and finally he reached for the button to turn this whole thing on. His finger hovered over it, the last few remaining doubts in his minds making him a little nervous.

If any of the variables was wrong, there was no telling where or _when_ he could end up, assuming he even survived his passing through a ring of refined Kryptonite.

No, no, _no!_ He wasn't supposed to think like that. The calculations had to be right, they were Bruce's! And if anyone could survive this kind of trip, it was Superman. He had to. He'd survive going through the ring, and traveling through the portal that it opened in the fabric of time, and space, and _dimensions_. He would survive. And when he got on the other side... when he got there, he'd be on an entire different Earth.

An Earth where Bruce Wayne still lived, though one where Superman had died. It was the perfect solution for everyone.

That other Earth would have its Superman again, and Kal-El would once more have Bruce, and then he wouldn't be alone anymore. He wouldn't be alone and miserable, unwanted and heartbroken anymore. Everything would be right again, for everyone.

Yes. Everything would be right, and _normal_ again; everything would once again be just the way it was supposed to be.

Superman pushed the power on button, and immediately a buzzing sound was heard. The entire room lit up with the pulsating glow of the huge Kryptonite ring.

He took a few steps in its direction, holding his breath in apprehension, when suddenly, behind him, someone shouted, "No! Don't!"

Superman sighed, then turned to see J'onn and Diana, flanked by a couple of Lanterns.

"Don't do this," Diana told him, walking toward him. Her tone was gentle, calm, though it was obvious from her expression that she was very anxious. "Kal, _please_."

"I've explained it to you before," Superman told her, his shoulders slumping. Why couldn't they understand that he needed to do this? That he just couldn't live this way anymore?

"You have," J'onn agreed, in his usual deep and neutral baritone.

"Then you know that I have to do this," Superman replied. "This Earth doesn't need me. Doesn't _want_ me anymore. Why should I stay here then, when there's a chance... there's a chance I can make a difference elsewhere. A chance I could find happiness again."

Diana took Superman's hand in hers. "It is hard, I know," she said, "But this isn't a solution. What you might find there, it could be worse than what's here. You can't know. Kal, if you go through that--" she pointed to the ring "--you might never be able to come back."

"Yes, I know," Superman insisted. "And yes, I know what going through that ring will do to me. I know everything I need to know, I promise you, and I realize all that there is to realize. But this is something I have to do. I can't stay here alone anymore, Diana, in a world where I no longer belong. You have to understand. We were supposed to have the rest of our lives, not--" he paused, taking a shaky breath "--not four _weeks_! I promised... the rest of my life. And there's a world out there where Bruce lives, but he's alone now as well. Isn't it better for me to join him there, then? Isn't that the right choice to make?"

"Kal, no," said Diana in a firm but gentle tone. "This Bruce... He isn't ours. He isn't yours. He may never be. What if he wants nothing to do with you? Wouldn't that be worse?"

"They were friends, Diana," he replied, taking his hand away from hers. "Why would he turn me away, if they were friends?"

"Because you're not the person he knew," she told him. "And if that Bruce is anything like ours was, he won't _like_ that you're a copy of the person he knew."

Out of the corner of his eye, Superman caught some movement from one of the Lanterns who was approaching the control console and the the power off switch. So, before anyone could try to distract him with any more words, and before the Lantern was even quick enough to hit the switch, Superman turned into a blur of red, yellow and blue, and through the ring he went, entering the portal with a loud groan of pain as the Kryptonite radiation tore through every molecule of his being.

When he emerged on the other side of the portal, he was in so much pain that he couldn't even stand stand. He let out a small gasp, his legs giving out from under him, and fell to the ground like a rag-doll. The last thing he was conscious of, before blacking out, was that there was a faint taste of blood in his mouth.

~*~*~

Batman was sitting in his usual spot in front of the Bat-Computer, when all of a sudden there was a loud crackling sound, then something like a gasp and a thud. He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the sounds, jumping out of his seat immediately upon realizing that Superman was lying in a heap a few feet away, on the rocky floor of the Bat-Cave.

Resentment and grudges instantly forgotten, Bruce hurried to the side of the man who, until very recently, had been his closest ally, if not his closest friend. He turned him over, then attempted to get some sort of response out of him, but got none at all; Superman wasn't conscious, and even worse, he was bleeding. So Bruce, as carefully as he could, dragged Superman's limp and incredibly heavy body all the way to the small cot at the other end of the Bat-Cave; a cot he kept for when Alfred threatened him with bodily harm unless he got at least a few moments of rest. Then, Bruce took a small sample of Superman's blood and went back to his Bat-Computer to analyze it.

Something was obviously very wrong, if Superman's invulnerability aura had been compromised, and the quickest way to learn what the problem was -- since Superman himself wasn't in any condition to tell him -- was to check his blood work, and then try some more tests if he could.

The computer ran the analysis and spat out a list of numbers and indicators and comparative data for Bruce to look over, but he'd barely had a chance to really examine them when he heard a groan coming from behind him. He got out of his chair again, sheets of computer data clutched tightly in one gloved hand, and walked back to the cot where he'd left Superman.

"You need rest," he said flatly in a voice that wasn't quite Batman's though nowhere near as pleasant as Bruce's.

There was a strange expression on Superman's face. Something like confusion, or awe, or an odd mixture of the two, like he'd witnessed some sort of apparition, perhaps. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then frowned and wiped his bleeding lip with a hand, staring at the smear of red on his fingers as though he'd never seen anything like it before in his life. He looked back up to Batman, questions obvious in his eyes.

Bruce cocked an eyebrow. "You're bleeding," he said in the same flat, unflappable tone. "From what I can tell--" he held up the computer readout "--most of your powers have been severely compromised."

"Yes, I--" Superman started, his voice hoarse, then he coughed before going on, "I know." He looked again at the blood on the skin of his hand. "Kryptonite," he explained, looking back to Batman once more with that strange expression; like something wasn't quite right, or quite like he'd expected it to be.

"And what?" said Bruce in a tone that was tainted with accusation. "You were exposed to green K and decided, _oh, why not drop in on Batman, surely he won't mind fixing me right up again?_ Don't you think, under the circumstances, you should probably have landed on someone else's doorstep?"

Superman blinked, then frowned, clearly confused. "What, uh, what circumstances?" he asked after a long moment.

"Don't play innocent with me!" Batman snapped back. "I might not have stuck around while you guys voted me out of the League, but I know perfectly well that the tie-breaker was yours to cast, and I knew before you made your choice just exactly how you were going to vote. I know you -- all of you -- too well."

"Oh," said Superman, his voice barely more than a whisper. There was a look of regret on his face, though it made very little sense to Bruce to see it, considering the recent events, and their last actual conversation.

"Or have you voted everyone else who's ever made a mistake out from the League as well, _Superman_?"

Superman appeared wounded by the comment, but he gave no reply. Instead, he tried sitting up on the cot, every one of his movements obviously laced with pain.

"Just rest for a while," Batman told him in a frustrated sigh. "You can leave when your powers are back," he added as he started to walk away. Then, over his shoulder he added, "I trust you know the way out."

He'd barely sat back at his computer when he heard heavy footsteps echoing in the cave. He sighed heavily, then turned. "I said rest, you stubborn fool."

Superman shook his head slowly. "My powers won't come back for a very long time," he said. "I might as well leave now and head for the Fortress."

"I won't throw you out, if that's what you're worried about," Batman told him. "Besides, how do you plan on getting to the Fortress? I don't suppose you can fly at the moment, can you?"

"I-- uh, well--" Superman shrugged. "No."

"Then just lie down and rest, you can leave when you feel stronger."

"I won't feel stronger," said Superman. "Not if I stay here. But if I'm at the Fortress--"

"Fine, fine," Batman cut in with a frustrated sigh. "I get it. You'll heal better in your Fortress. Come on, then, I'll fly you there."

~*~*~

The flight wasn't very long, considering the impressive speeds the Bat-Plane could reach, but it still seemed to last much too long in the end, as the entire trip was spent in silence. And before he knew it, Superman was alone in the Fortress, and Batman had gone right back to Gotham again.

It was strange being in the Fortress. It was exactly identical to the one he'd once had, on his world, though that one had long been destroyed, but as identical and familiar as it might be, it still wasn't his, and for all intents and purposes, he was trespassing on someone else's property. Someone else who he'd fully expected to be dead, but somehow had turned out to be very much alive.

He was certain he'd ended up on the right Earth, but perhaps he'd ended up in the past -- or the future, somehow? Kal-El didn't know for sure what part of the equation, which piece of the puzzle, he'd gotten wrong when he'd constructed the machine, or made the calculations to find the proper time window during which he should attempt to hop from his own universe to this one, but obviously he'd gotten something completely wrong.

This world's Superman should have been dead, but he wasn't, and worse yet, he and Batman were no longer even _friends_ here, and hence what little time Kal had spent with Bruce in the Bat-Cave hadn't been quite as enjoyable as it might otherwise have been.

Being at the Fortress now, though, and with Batman gone, Kal would have all the time he needed to figure out what mistake he'd made before. He remembered all the plans, and all the equations of course, just like he remembered every fact and information he'd ever been exposed to -- a perk of having an eidetic memory -- and even though remembering these things didn't mean he fully _understood_ them, he was sure he'd manage to find the problem, if he really put his mind to it. Here, he'd even have all the materials he needed to recreate a new machine, to open a new portal -- all that might be missing was the proper kind of Kryptonite, but if this Fortress really was just like his own had been, Kal was sure he'd find some of that here, just as he used to keep some samples of it in his own Fortress, on his world.

He'd barely started to rewrite the equations again, when the Fortress' main computer informed him that there was someone trying to contact him.

Someone, who turned out to be Batman.

"Who are you?" Bruce immediately asked in an accusing tone.

Kal frowned. "Who do you think I am?" he replied, uncertain just how he should answer the question.

"I don't know," said Batman. "That's why I'm asking _you_." He angled the camera in a way that it would point to one of the monitors in his large array of surveillance equipment, and then went on, "You see this? These images are coming in live from Metropolis. Now either you're the real thing and he's a doppelganger, or the other way around, I'm not sure yet. What I'm absolutely certain of, however, is that there is only _one_ Superman, and since I know that _you_ cannot fly, this means that one of you two is an impostor. So I will ask you again, and I'd advise you to think carefully about your answer before you give one, _who are you_?"

"I am Kal-El of Krypton," he answered very simply. "Though I'm not the one you know. I'm _him_ , but I'm...not." He took a deep breath. "I'm from a different universe. A different dimension, if you will."

There was a long, awkward moment of silence while Batman moved the camera again so that it would face him once more. "Why are you here?" he finally asked. The tone wasn't quite as accusing as before, but it wasn't exactly tender either.

Superman shook his head sadly. "I was looking for something. Some _one_."

"Who?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," said Kal with a faint shrug. "My calculations were wrong, and I haven't come at the right time. I--" He shook his head again miserably. "It doesn't matter anymore," he whispered.

"You realize that I have to tell Superman -- the _other_ Superman -- that you're here, don't you?" asked Batman. He sounded almost regretful.

"Do you? I'll be gone again soon," Kal told him. "I'll create another portal to travel through, and I'll be gone before you know it. I'm no threat to anyone without my powers, least of all to him. What difference does it make if he knows that I'm here or not?"

"A great deal of difference," Batman replied evenly. "I can't hide this from him. Not if I'm ever to regain his trust. Besides, he'll want to help you get home again."

"It would probably be best if you helped me, instead," Kal suggested. "The machine that brought me here, you--" He waved a hand as if to indicate this wasn't right, then amended his answer "--the plans for the machine that brought me here, all the calculations, they were Batman's. The one from my world. In fact, I'm not sure I followed all his instructions, or perhaps I just didn't understand the math, because, well... I ended up here, where here isn't exactly where I meant to go."

Batman spent a long moment staring back at the screen, brows furrowed in thought. When he sighed and it looked like he was about to refuse, Kal offered, "If you'll help me, then I promise, I'll talk to him myself."

"A fair deal," said Batman, after careful consideration.

Immediately, their discussion turned to quantum mechanics.

~*~*~

Talking to Superman had been rather strange. The man looked exactly like him, but they were so fundamentally different in every other way. Their experiences, their life's path, were so widely different -- on this Earth, Superman's reputation was still intact, he was still a hero, people still looked up to him. He was still very much the optimist, and slightly naive man that Kal-El had once been, before life had made him disillusioned and jaded, and the people of his Earth, who had once adopted him with open arms, had made him an outcast.

Talking to Superman had felt to Kal like he was talking to a mirror image of himself, though one several years in the past.

Just as Batman had explained, Superman had of course insisted on helping Kal construct a new dimension-travel machine. They'd argued a little over that until Kal had explained that he was already working with _Batman_ on that exact project. In the end, Superman had agreed to let Kal use the Fortress for as long as he required in exchange for the plans to this machine, and a chance to see Kal off when he'd be ready to leave again.

~*~*~

Working with Batman, just being in the same room with him, made Kal happier than he'd been in a very long time, but even so, as days went on, he couldn't help but miss _his_ Batman all the more. It had been difficult at first for Kal to refrain from the natural impulses he had to reach out, touch, hold and caress, but they slowly died, just as did Kal's hopes that he might eventually be able to substitute this Bruce for his own.

This Bruce wasn't unpleasant, not by any means, but he just wasn't the man that Kal had shared a part of his life with. He wasn't the man he'd loved -- and this man likely would never love him at all. There was no bond between them, and never would be. It wasn't the same, and he'd been foolish to imagine it could be -- crazy to believe he might have been able to live a lie, should this world's Superman really have been dead.

Leaving, possibly to go to a world where neither Batman nor Superman had ever existed, a world where Kal could really start over, was probably the best thing he could do.

They made good progress on the machine, and meanwhile Kal's powers had begun to return. He didn't expect them to come back to their fullest extent, but he was confident that it would be enough for him to attempt a second dimension-hopping trip. It didn't matter if he got out on the other side completely stripped of them, sentenced to mortality, no longer different from humans; it would only mean that the forever he'd once promised wouldn't last literally forever, he'd age and die, just like everyone else, and the prospect of that suddenly seemed very soothing.

They'd been working on a part on the machine's circuitry, when Bruce had received an urgent call for help. Kal had only overheard but a part of the conversation between Batman and Oracle, but just enough to freeze the blood in his veins. The situation that had arisen in Gotham, the words she'd used to describe it, they were the exact same ones Kal remembered from an identical even which had taken place in his own universe. An event he would never forget, for as long as he lived. Because if things progressed on this world the same way they had on his, tonight would be the night Batman met his demise.

And while this wasn't _his_ Batman, he was still _Bruce_ , and Kal-El would not let him die -- not again. Not if he could prevent it.

The only way to prevent such a thing from happening all over again was for Kal to be there, in Gotham. He could anticipate things, he could do something about them if he was there, on the spot. He couldn't tell Bruce why it was so important that he be there as well, for fear of him becoming suspicious, and potentially precipitating the events in a manner where Kal would no longer be able to predict them. There wasn't much time to argue over anything much at all, anyway, so Kal had opted for the only approach that seemed to make enough logical sense: he'd grabbed a hold of Batman and flown him straight back to Gotham, explaining simply that they would get there faster this way, which was mostly true.

They touched down in Gotham just minutes later, and Kal then did as he knew he'd be told: he got out of the way. He hovered in the sky, high above the city, keeping a close eye on the different things and the people he remembered had played a part in the events as they had occurred on his world. He watched every one of them move into place, as if he'd been watching some sort of slow-motion replay of a sports event.

Then all of a sudden he saw the man he remembered, the man in a fedora and dark trench coat; the one Batman had failed to notice, somehow, and who'd shot him with a laser weapon that had somehow pierced his Kevlar armor and killed him on the spot.

"Batman, no!" Kal cried, the moment he saw the killer take a step forward.

He dove from the sky in Batman's direction as fast as he could, watching every movement the killer made. He saw the small, red dot on Batman's armor, the target on his chest, and he saw the killer's hand on the weapon, and how it contracted all of a sudden.

In little more than the blink of an eye, Kal stood right in the path of the laser, forcibly pushing Batman to the ground and out of the way. But the killer had already taken his shot, and while Batman lay safely on the ground, alive and uninjured, Kal was the one who got hit. Directly in the back, right between the shoulder blades, the shot burning a hole through his red cape, his blue spandex suit, and right through his not-quite-fully indestructible flesh and bones. He fell to the ground in a rustling of cape and a sickening thud.

There were shots fired, from regular firearms, and then a slew of other sounds that Kal couldn't quite identify. There was a strange warmth in his chest that grew and grew as he felt his strength slowly leave him.

"Hang in there," Batman told him, in a worried tone. "Just hang on a little longer. Robin is almost here. He's bringing medical supplies."

Kal didn't need to see the blood pooling under himself to know it was there, and that it was already much, much too late. "It no longer matters," he said. "And besides...it's better this way."

"No, don't say--"

"Listen," Kal cut in, knowing his time was in short supply. "Please, I have to tell you..." Batman nodded, and Kal went on, "What I came here to find? Bruce, what I came to find, it was you. On my world, this incident? You didn't survive it, you died. And I-- I tried to live without you for a while... but I couldn't. I didn't want to. On my world, we--" He coughed. "--we were married on my world. I thought coming here could heal the pain of losing you... _him_...but I was wrong. Though maybe coming here wasn't a mistake after all, since you're still alive now. Something good came of this, somehow. And dying... dying isn't a bad thing."

"You're not going to die!" Batman objected vehemently. He took his hand, holding it tightly in his own. "Listen to me, you're not going to die. Just hold on, okay?"

"Of course I am, Bruce," Kal replied with a faint smile. The warmth he'd felt in his chest was gone now, replaced by an icy sensation, and the distinct impression that his world was dwindling, about to collapse. "But it's all right. It's okay. It just means I'll be with him again. It's where I should be; not here, on a strange world that isn't mine. I couldn't stay here anyway. I couldn't live in a world where you don't love me."

"But you'd leave me in a world where Superman wants nothing to do with me?" There was something in Batman's voice, but Kal couldn't be sure what it was anymore.

"Are you sure?" said Kal, looking over Batman's shoulder at someone else. "I don't think he came for me."

Batman frowned and turned to find Superman -- his world's Superman -- standing a few feet away, a crushed weapon in one fist, and in the other he held a man in a dark trench coat. At his feet lay two more men, already bound and gagged.

"He'll come around," Kal said in what little of a voice he had left. "If he's anything like me, he can no more imagine his life without you in it than I could. He'll come around, you'll see."

There was a snort, or a choked gasp, or some sort of sound from Batman, but Kal couldn't tell what it was. His hearing was fading, and his eyesight was nearly gone now. He heard words being spoken, but could no longer tell by whom, nor did they make any sort of sense to him at all.

Then as he felt the last of his life flow away from him Kal smiled. He was finally going where he was supposed to be, where his Bruce was waiting for him already.

  
/The End.


End file.
